SACS Forum Meeting Minutes, May 2025
Standardized Account Code Structure (SACS) May 13, 2025, meeting minutes.Meeting held via webinar
Meeting Agenda
Announcements and Information
Accounting Updates
SACS Financial Reporting
Next Meeting
Meeting Minutes
Announcements and Information
2025 Bid Threshold Adjustment and Parent Liability
The Bid Threshold for Contracts Awarded by School Districts was adjusted by 0.259 percent to $114,800.
The Liability Limit of Parent or Guardian for Willful Pupil Misconduct was adjusted by 0.259 percent to $25,100.
Both thresholds were updated on December 6, 2024. Letters are posted on the California Department of Education (CDE) Correspondence web page.
Local Education Agency (LEA) Approved Indirect Cost Rates Posted
The 2025–26 approved indirect cost rates have been published and can be found on the CDE’s Indirect Cost Rate (ICR) web page.
2023–24 Unaudited Actuals (UA) Submissions – Observations
The CDE provided a list of accounting and reporting observations after reviewing the unaudited actual data for the 2023–24 fiscal year.
The CDE highlighted one notable issue: the misreporting of revenue recorded for restricted resources. Examples include Expanded Learning Opportunities Program apportionments (Resource 2600), and Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant (Resource 7435).
Additionally, the CDE pointed out that expenditures related to Assembly Bill (AB) 218 regarding childhood sexual assault claims should not be recorded under Functions 7200 or 7400. Generally, only those legal costs directly related to specific business-office purchasing, or human resources/personnel matters are charged to the LEA’s indirect cost pool. LEAs may use Function 7100 for AB 218 legal service expenditures. If LEAs maintain internal service funds (e.g. Fund 67, Self-Insurance Fund) for self-insurance activities, then Function 6000 should be used for recording legal settlements paid out of self-insurance funds.
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Per-Pupil Expenditure (PPE) Reporting Update
The 2023–24 data collection ended March 17, 2025. CDE thanked the LEAs for the timely submittals. The CDE staff noted that the submittals this year are of higher quality than in the past.
The CDE is currently reviewing submittals and reaching out to affected LEAs. The final data set will be completed and released to the field by the end of June. LEAs with questions can reach out to essappe@cde.ca.gov.
School Level Finance Survey (SLFS) Update
Collection of Instruction related expenditures for 2023–24 data ended March 17, 2025. Approximately 93 percent of all LEAs reported expenditure data for their schools. The CDE is currently performing quality checks of data received and contacting LEAs when discrepancies are identified.
Data is expected to be provided to the Census Bureau and National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) by June 2025. Fiscal year 2024–25 data collection is expected to occur between December 2025 to March 2026.
As a reminder, 2024–25 data collection will collect Instruction, Student Support Services, Instructional Staff Support as well as three (3) exhibits: Salaries Paid to Teachers, Salaries Paid to Instructional Staff or Assistants, and Book and Periodicals. Additional information about this upcoming collection can be found by visiting the SLFS Reporting web page and navigating to the Calculating SLFS Data Section.
SACS 2025–26 Budget Release
SACS Web financial reporting system was updated for 2025–26 Budget reporting on May 1. The next release is planned for 2024–25 unaudited actuals data reporting in early July.
The CDE is resolving issues with the SACS Web system email functionality to ensure all system users receive notification of future releases and other system updates.
Accounting Updates
California Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI) – Fee Schedule Program
The Fee Schedule Program aims to reimburse LEAs for behavioral health services provided. Reimbursement is made to LEAs by Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan (MCPs), Medical Fee for Services (FFS), Commercial health plans, or disability insurers.
LEAs have inquired how they should record the receipt of these reimbursement amounts. Conversations with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) have confirmed that the CYBHI Fee Schedule Program is 100 percent funded by managed care plans or insurers, and although the operational goal of the program is to fund costs associated with providing behavioral health services to students, reimbursement funds can also be used for other activities.
Therefore, the CDE recommends recording the reimbursement funds received from the CYBHI Fee Schedule Program using Resource 0000, Unrestricted and Object 8699, All Other Local Revenue.
In response to an inquiry asking if Resource 9010 (Other Restricted Local) can be used for recording the Fee Schedule Program reimbursements, the CDE advises that Resource 0000 (Unrestricted) is the more appropriate classification, rather than Resource 9010. This recommendation is based on the absence of state-imposed restrictions on the use of these reimbursement funds. This guidance contrasts with the accounting treatment for programs such as the LEA Medi-Cal Billing Option Program (LEA BOP), where the reimbursement revenues are subject to specific state-imposed restrictions.
A participant asked if indirect costs can be charged to the Fee Schedule Program. These reimbursement funds received are considered unrestricted, and indirect costs are primarily applied to restricted resources. Although LEAs can charge indirect costs to unrestricted program activities, as a practical matter they usually do not because the indirect charges would just be paid using unrestricted general funds. However, the CDE is aware some LEAs do this in order to track the total cost of their locally operated programs.
AB 3216 – Phone-Free Schools Act
AB 3216 (Chapter 500, Statutes of 2024), known as the Phone-Free Schools Act, was enacted in September 2024 by amending Education Code Section 48901.7.
In summary, the Phone-Free Schools Act requires a governing body of a school district, a county office of education, or a charter school, no later than July 1, 2026, to develop and adopt, and update every five years, a policy to limit or prohibit the use of smartphone by pupils while they are at a school site. LEAs are encouraged to review the California School Accounting Manual (CSAM) Procedure 405, “Accounting for Inventories,” and Procedure 770, “Distinguishing Between Supplies and Equipment” if they purchase supplies, equipment, or capital assets to implement the Act.
Additionally, as expenditures can be directly identified with a classroom, Function 1000 may be appropriate to use. LEAs are encouraged to review CSAM Procedure 320, “Goal Classification” when coding the appropriate goal for instructional setting.
Resource Code Update
The CDE provided the following list of resource codes ending soon.
Ending June 30, 2025:
| Resource | Title |
|---|---|
| 3180 | No Child Left Behind (NCLB): Title I, School Improvement Grant |
| 4128 | ESSA: Title IV, Part A, Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant Program (SSAE) (Competitive) |
| 6011 | After School Kids Code Grant Pilot Program |
| 6108 | Early Education: SB 89 COVID-19 Early Learning and Care (ELC) Response Funds |
| 6126 | Early Education: CA Transitional Kindergarten Stipend (CTKS) Incentive Program |
| 6378 | California Health Science Capacity Building Project |
| 6512 | Special Ed: Mental Health Services |
| 7121 | Distance Learning California Advanced Services Fund |
| 7338 | College Readiness Block Grant |
| 7422 | In-Person Instruction (IPI) Grant |
| 7425 | Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) Grant |
| 7426 | Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) Grant: Paraprofessional Staff |
| 7428 | County Safe Schools for All |
| 7510 | Low-Performing Students Block Grant |
Ending June 30, 2026:
| Resource | Title |
|---|---|
| 5032 | Early Education: Early Learning and Care Workforce Development Grant (Federal Funds) |
| 6121 | Early Education: Early Learning and Care Workforce Development Grant (General Funds) |
| 6230 | Early Education: Early Learning and Care Workforce Development Grant (General Funds) |
| 7412 | A–G Completion Grant: A–G Access/Success Grant |
| 7413 | A–G Completion Grant: A–G Learning Loss Mitigation Grant |
The CDE reminded participants that although resource codes are no longer valid in SACS, if allowed by the program, LEAs can still spend down fund balances. A technical review check (TRC) will trigger in SACS for any invalid resource codes, but because the TRC severity is Warning, an explanation can be entered to allow for official exports.
The CDE also reminded participants to reach out to program office contacts for program specific questions, including allowable expenditures and expenditure reporting requirements. Program and fiscal contacts, as well as additional resource code/program information can be found in CDE’s SACS Query. Programs can be searched by resource code or program title.
Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 104 – Disclosure of Certain Capital Assets
GASB issued a new statement 104, Disclosure of Certain Capital Assets, effective 2025–26. This statement affects the government-wide financial statements. There are two new required disclosures of capital assets to be included in the notes to financial statements.
The two new required disclosures are:
- Certain types of capital assets must be separately shown in the capital asset note disclosure.
- Lease assets reported in accordance with GASB 87 by major class of underlying asset.
- Intangible right-to-use assets recognized in accordance with GASB 94, by major class of underlying asset.
- Subscription assets reported in accordance with GASB 96.
- Intangible capital assets other than the above three types, by major class of asset.
- A separate note disclosure of capital assets held for sale.
A capital asset is a capital asset held for sale if (1) the government has decided to pursue the sale of the asset, and (2) it is probable (likely to occur) that the sale will be finalized within one year of the financial statement date. The capital asset held for sale should be evaluated each reporting period.
For a capital asset held for sale, the government should disclose:
- The ending balance, with separate disclosure of historical cost and accumulated depreciation by major class of asset, and
- The carrying amount of debt for which the capital asset held for sale is pledged as collateral for each major class of asset.
SACS Financial Reporting
The CDE shared the following SACS Web System tips and reminders.
SACS Web System Tip #1:
Use the Administration role to unlock locked dataset submissions by selecting the Display current locks button and selecting the Unlock all button.
SACS Web System Tip #2:
In the View Users page, select Associated Users option to filter the results to display users associated with the LEA.
Publishing Reminders:
The 2024–25 Second Interim reporting period data will be published next in the SACS Data Viewer. The CDE asked the county offices of education to finalize and promote all publishable datasets to the LEA Oversight Review Completed state. The CDE recommends that the COEs update their internal procedures to include a reminder for promoting all submissions to a publishable state for future budget and interim reporting periods.
Next Meeting
The next SACS Forum is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, November 4, 2025. The CDE is planning on offering the forum via webinar only.
To receive email notification of future meetings, meeting handouts, and notice when meeting minutes and recordings are posted to the web, please send a blank message to join-sacs-forum@mlist.cde.ca.gov to subscribe to the sacs-forum mailing list.